From the cold winterscene in Rotterdam I wish you all a happy and healthy 2008.

Christmass time is for most of us a time of cosiness and there is not a lot of time for winemaking. It is more a time of enjoying the wines we made in the previous years together with our loved ones.

It is also a time of looking to the future and evaluating the past year.

Last year was for me a as a winemaker very succesfull.I made a lot of wines (anout 260 bottles) and did a lot of experiments which lead to some surprisingly excellent wines.

I had the honor to welcome several thousands visitors on this web-log and I was invited to write an article for a news paper on winemaking (Eindhovens Dagblad). A lot of people sent me a personal e-mail with questions about winemaking that sometimes lead to new ideas for my web-log.

For the upcoming year I have several new ideas 'cooking' and there are a lot of carboys that need to be bottled. The recipes of these wines will be published here in due time.

Sometime ago a friend of mine, which I know for more as 15 years, called me and informed me that he quit winemaking. For years he made mead (being an imker he could obtain loads of honey for free) and now he stopped. He asked if I wanted his winemaking equipment. Of course I wanted them. So a few days later I stood on his doorstep and together we emptied his barn and loaded the goods in my car (luckily I drive a van).

Besides some fermenting vessels he also had several carboys. One of them contained a dark red fluid. To my amazement he told me it was a blackberry wine which we made together some 4 years ago. Well mine was already bottled and gone. But here was his patiently waiting in the carboy.

So when my friend asked me to dump it down the drain so it was easier to transport the bottle, I told him I hated the idea and would find some purpose for it.

So home I went in the middle of the night with a car full of goodies with amongst these a bottle of sloshing blackberry wine.

At home all the goods were put away but the full bottle I parked in the garden for the time being.After a few weeks I became curious and I could use a 15 liter carboy. So I poured myself a glass for tasting purposes.Now the blackberry wine my friend made all those years ago really had alcohol but not a lot of flavor. The wine was watery, the taste was dull. Nevertheless I thought it was a shame to pour those 15 liters down the drain. So what to do ???

Of course I could save the wine for blending it later with some other wine. But then the carboy was not available and I would have to wait again. Spo lets start experimenting.

First I looked in my store cupboard (by some called alchemists room) to see what I could find. I found 3 different syrups. The first one was strawberry flavor, the second one lemon flavor and the last one black currant. Next I poured 3 glasses of the blackberry wine. Then I added to each of the glasses a bit of one of the syrups. Then we started tasting. The combination of the blackberry wine with the black currant syrup was amazing. So then I poured the complete bottle syrup in the wine. After a week I bottled the combination wine. I put 5 liters in a bag-in-a-box and the rest was bottled in regular wine bottles.

The 5 liter in the bag-in-a-box vanished quickly, it really was deliscious. The rest I hid. I am going to give my friend a bottle without a label. I bet he will be jealous...............

Now this kind of flavoring of a wine will be looked upon by the winemakers establisment as heresy. And I am sure some of the regular winemakers will never look upon me as a serious winemaker. Not a single self-respecting winemaker will add a syrup to his finished wine for flavoring. Or will they ????

A few summers ago we were at a party and there was some white wine. Most of those present considered this wine far to dry. So I put some drops of selfmade elderflower syrup in the glasses to sweeten the wine and add flavor. The result was really fabulous.

And once I tasted a superb apple-wine. The winemaker confided me that he added a bottle of peach-syrup to his wine before bottling. At this moment I am still searching for peach-syrup so I can reproduce his recipe !!!!

Not many fellow winemakers will applaud this procedure. Many will never take my winemaking experiments serious again. But sometimes I wonder if we still know what we are doing. We calculate everything. We measure acid and sugar levels and follow the pre-described paths in winemaking. And then we arrive at the perfect wine. The right amount of alcohol, the right amount acid, an excellent body and well balanced tannins. But does it taste good ????

Most of us hobby winemakers start winemaking for various reasons. My reason was two-part. First I wanted to know how this worked. My second reason was I did not like the wines bought in the shops (even the twenty euro and up bottles) and I still do dislike most of them. At this moment I still find most commercial wines nasty tasting sour ugly beverages, some exceptions excluded.

So what is the excuse for not bringing a selfmade wine up to the level you like with any means that you can find.

I am not advertising this method. I think that any self respecting winemaker should put all his effort intrying to make the best wine available.

But if a batch totally is messed up experiment to your hearts content with syrups, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla or any other flavoring addition you can imagine. You do have my blessing.

Luc Volders

Copyright 2007No part of this text or pictures may be used in other publications(including web-pages, forums and printed text) without written permissionfrom the author.